Saturday, August 21, 2010

I am starting a business a little business on Amazon. How should I keep track of things for taxes? Any advice?

I am starting a business a little business on Amazon. How should I keep track of things for taxes? Any advice on how I should run things, or what software to use. Should I save receipts for the supplies I buy? Any advice on anything please. Thank you!I am starting a business a little business on Amazon. How should I keep track of things for taxes? Any advice?
I suggest you keep all your receipts and track your income and expenses. Definitely keep your receipts (best if you separate business related receipts from your personal receipts)





You can use a simple Excel spreadsheet or use a more sophisticated accounting program such as Quicken for home office. An Excel will do just fine.





Here are things you can deduct and claim as business deduction in your Schedule C come tax time:





- Fees/Commissions Amazon charges you for selling


- Internet access


- Shipping expenses such as postage/stamps, shipping boxes or mailers


- Promotion and advertising expenses you are running


- Office supplies such as papers, pens, calculators


- Equipment such as computers, scanners, fax machines, camera and other equipment you used to run your business


- Gasoline expenses for going to and fro the post office to ship your items


- Books and magazine subscriptions you bought for your business





I suggest you read books such as:





- Deduct It! Lower Your Small Business Taxes, Second Edition Paperback by Stephen Fishman


- J.K. Lasser's Taxes Made Easy for Your Home Based Business, 5th Edition Paperback by Gary W. CarterI am starting a business a little business on Amazon. How should I keep track of things for taxes? Any advice?
Keep every receipt that you get. Use only checks and credit cards to pay for things so you have a record. For starters you can use something rather simple like Quicken to kept tract of all of this. Normally Quicken is for a checking or savings account but you can tract your other expenses by imputing credit card expenditures as if they were a separate account. Check the IRS.gov web site they have lots of good advice. A form 1040 Schedule C is the form on which you report your business income and expenses. The following links will provide one, along with the instructions.





http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.p鈥?/a>





http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sc.p鈥?/a>
Get Quickbooks!





Keep track or reciepts and invoices and do you bank recs.

No comments:

Post a Comment